


Scales

by Howling_Eclipse



Series: To Scales, Bound [1]
Category: Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Dammit Chas Quit Blaming Me for Stuff, Gray Is An Exposition Fairy, Gray/Grace Used Interchangably, M/M, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Zach Mitchell, This One Is YOUR Fault, Trigger Words (Not in the Way You're Thinking), Zach is 17
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:33:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26602246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Howling_Eclipse/pseuds/Howling_Eclipse
Summary: Inspired by several of Chasyn's Zachwen fics.
Relationships: Owen Grady/Zach Mitchell
Series: To Scales, Bound [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1997119
Comments: 61
Kudos: 61





	1. Arrival

"And in 1960 scientists thought that only Omegas carried the Shifter gene, but in _1971_ a German factory worker was found to have it despite being an Alpha, leading scientists to reopen the study and then they discovered that it was a recessive gene which is why it was more common in Omegas, since they have six more genes than Betas while Alphas only have three more. And then in 2000 they did _another_ study, this time to see what triggers the shifter gene in the first place and discovered that having a certain amount of exposure to the animal they can turn into triggers a pseudo-heat that they dubbed 'Shifter Sickness' while the gene activates and-" a small, curly-haired child rattled on at his clearly-exasperated brother.

"Graaaaaay. I never thought I'd say this, but can you please go back to talking about dinosaurs?" the older boy groaned, shaking his head as the two of them shuffled forward in the line to board the ferry to Jurassic World.

"But Zach, on the flight you asked me to talk about something else." Gray replied, frowning slightly.

"And I wholeheartedly regret that and never would have asked if I'd known the only non-dinosaur related flight entertainment was a documentary about shifters." Zach replied, pushing the boy forward. "Hurry up, we're almost on the boat." he added, and Gray's face lit up.

"How big is the island?" he asked, and Zach shrugged. "Big." "But how many _pounds_?" the smaller child insisted, and Zach made a face. "That doesn't even make sense."

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zach groaned as he fell back onto the bed, his aunt's assistant dropping them off for the evening with a promise that she would get thier aunt in time to have a dinner with them in an hour. On the one hand, it was rather irritating that Claire hadn't been there to meet them and had sent her assistant, Zara, in her place, but on the other hand he could somewhat understand, since she was in charge of the whole island. It didn't help though that the day had clearly been planned for younger kids, though at least Grey enjoyed it for the most part. Zara had seemed nice, though a bit distracted trying to plan...some sort of event? He overheard her talking about a caterer, but not what it was for.

"Hey Zach? What's Aunt Claire like?" Gray asked from the other bed, and Zack shrugged without looking over.

"I don't really remember. Last time she came around that I know of was right after you were born. Guess we'll have to find out later." he replied, and he saw Gray nod from the corner of his eye. The next hour was spent with Gray reading quietly while Zach lightly dozed, listening to music until a knock at the door. Gray looked up from his book, setting it down and following Zach to the door as he opened it to reveal a woman in white, who gave them a surprised look followed by a smile. "Wow, you two have gotten so much bigger since the last time I saw you! Ready for dinner?" she asked them.

Dinner turned out to be surprisingly fun. Gray asked Claire question after question after question, but thier aunt took them all in stride and managed to keep up with the enthusiastic boy, which was a little impressive. Zach for the most part just sat quietly and ate, answering only when asked a direct question."Ok, so, I do have to work tomorrow morning still but I can have Zara show you around some more?" Claire commented over desert, and Zach tuned back in, shaking his head. "We don't really need an escort Aunt Claire. I can keep an eye on Grey. Besides, we're not little kids, even Gray will get bored just hanging around the petting zoo." he said, joking a bit at the end, and Claire gave him a guilty smile. "We, uh, didn't know how old you guys were when I planned out what to show you. But if you're sure, I can tell Zara she has the day off like she was supposed to. I will be off in the afternoon, so maybe meet up with me at the Innovation Center and I can show you some behind the scenes stuff?" she offered, and Gray lit up at that.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day was a lot more enjoyable than the first. Zach took Gray to see the Tyrannosaur feeding (where he prattled on about it being from the original park, just like the gate near the entrance, as well as how many _teeth_ it has) as well as the Mosasaur feeding (where Gray's excited shrieks were swallowed up by the noise of the crowd so Zach has no idea _what_ facts he was rattling off at the top of his lungs), and then browsed a gift shop in the Innovation Center while waiting on thier aunt (Gray got some books on the history of the park and what dinosaurs they had recreated, and I was drawn to a section with replica raptor claws, which according to the salesperson were quite popular due to the lack of raptors on the island). Eventually, thier aunt found them and gave them a look at the command room (Gray was ecstatic, and got along with the wierd technician dude like oil and fire, but it was admittedly pretty cool even if he initially wouldn't have thought so). Eventually, though, she noticed me playing with the claw and came over to me, speaking quietly. "If you and Gray can keep a secret I can show you guys something really cool. But I do mean keep it secret, ok?" she offered, and Zach nodded, calling out for Gray, and the three of them left the building and Claire grabbed a company car, driving off away from the park and further into the island, smiling and saying "You'll see." to all of Gray's questions about where they were going.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, is it just more or is it a bit awkward writing with pre-existing characters? Don't wanna make them too unbelievably OoC but at the same time trying to move the plot along. Eesh....this is probably gonna be a bit rough at the start, honestly.


	2. Focus

"You're doing it again." Came a voice from his left, and Owen turned to see his friend Barry.

"What am I doing, exactly?" he asked, and Barry laughed.

"Wishing you could turn into one and be down there with them."

Owen shrugged in response. "Can you blame me? It would be amazing to be able to talk to them and understand what they're saying." He responded.

"They would probably ask when they could eat Hoskins. Besides, shifting isn't always as fun as you think. Shifter Sickness is unpleasant, you never know _what_ you'll react to, and having thoughts from certain animals shoving into your head when you're close enough can be frankly annoying. Besides, if you would be a raptor shifter, it would have triggered long before now. It doesn't take _that_ much contact with your animal for it to trigger." Barry explained, shaking his head.

"Speaking of...when exactly did you get in contact with a _bison_?" Owen asked, and Barry made an annoyed face.

"School field trip. It was supposed to be a three day trip to an animal reserve. I wound up having to leave early the second morning after spending the night listening to one talking about a particularly tasty clump of grass she'd been chewing for four hours. It was miserable." Barry said, and glowered at Owen's laughter, though before either man could say anything further, they were distracted by a car coming up the path toward the paddock.

"Wait, isn't that Claire's car? What's she doing here? She hates the raptors..." Owen muttered, sliding past Barry and descending the metal stairs down to ground level right as Claire parked the car and climbed out, two kids following behind her. Owen was even more confused. Not only was Claire out here at the raptor paddock, one of the few places in the park she avoided like the plague, but she had two kids with her, which was such a major breach of all of Claire's own rules that the only logical conclusions Owen could come up with was that she either got body-jacked by some sort of alien, or the two following behind her were the kids of some super-rich potential investor she was trying to impress. Though even then, why she would take them to see the _raptors_ , a purely research project, rather than a public enclosure, he still had no idea. The younger one was clearly excited, bouncing around and asking questions a mile a minute, being literally held in place by the older one, who despite his slouch seemed fairly interested as well, if the replica raptor claw in his free hand was anything to go by. (Honestly, Owen had forgotten the gift shop even sold those.) Owen stepped closer, pausing briefly when the slight scent of Omega coming from the older kid registered to his senses. Even more unusual...most Omegas that Owen came across on the island preferred the herbivores over the carnivores, and absolutely none, save for Barry, expressed any interest whatsoever in something as deadly as the velociraptors. And honestly, Barry was an Omega on paper only, having confided in Owen during thier time in the Navy that he had gotten his heats permanently suppressed via surgery before joining.

"Mr. Grady-"

"Owen."

"... _Owen._ These are my nephews. Zach and Gray. I'm showing them some behind-the-scenes stuff and thought they might enjoy seeing your work. I also needed to discuss something with you, as well." Claire stated, continuing on with her explanation as if Owen hadn't interrupted her. He stood there for a few minutes, reconciling everything he knew about Claire (which, admittedly, wasn't actually all that much) with this new information before nodding.

"Riiiiiiight...well. I was just about to attempt to run them through a few drills, so I guess come up on the walkway so you can see." He agreed, and the younger boy immediately fired off more questions than he could even register, let alone begin to answer.

"Grace, give him some space. One question at a time." the older boy (Zach, presumably, though he could have sworn Claire called the other one Gray...must be a nickname) said, giving the younger a shake before letting go as Owen led the group towards the stairs.

"What are thier names?" Gray (Grace? Owen wasn't sure which one the kid preferred) asked as they got into place.

"Delta, Charlie, Echo, and Blue, the Beta." Owen replied, stepping into place with his clicker as his crew finished setting up the last few things he needed for the girls' run.

"Who's the Alpha?" Gray/ce followed up, and Owen glanced back and smirked.

"You're looking at him, kid." he said, and wow, that Omega was surprisingly adorable when he blushed. But he was A) probably under eighteen and B) Claire's nephew, so that meant he was absolutely off-limits. He held up his clicker as the girls came into view, stopping in the clearing under the walkway. "Eyes on me!" he called out, getting thier attention, suppressing a shiver as he felt the four pairs of eyes laser-focus on him...actually, make that five, because the Omega behind him was focusing on him with almost the same intensity as his girls. He dismissed the thought for later and began running the girls through the run, letting Barry and Claire answer the several questions the smaller kid kept asking rather than break his focus from the raptors until the end, when he had them focus back on him and named them, one at a time so that the two kids could see which was which as he fed them rats as a treat for doing well, the largest of which went to Blue. Honestly, in spite of the unexpected addition of Claire and her nephews, today went well. Way better than any other attempt.

"Pig loose!"

Fuck. He spoke too soon. Before he could tell them to leave it, the new kid Hoskins had hired came running out and tried to catch it with the pole, only to get yanked in himself when Delta caught the pig at the same time, his flailing foot catching Zach in the chest and knocking him over the other side of the railing. Double fuck. Ignoring Claire and Gray/ce's screams, Owen leapt off the walkway (not enough time to reach the gate and save the kids), landing in a roll and coming up between them and the Raptors, not even keeping track of what he was saying, just stream-of-consciousness white noise to try and keep the raptors calm in between instructions to Barry, backing them up to gate and then rolling under it right as it closed and the raptors got fed up and leaped. He caught his breath as they left the secondary cage door, Claire somewhat frantically checking her nephew over for injuries despite his protests that he was fine and just bruised. The handler kid must have made a noise though, because Claire whirled on him and told him he was suspended for a week while she decided where to reassign him.

"Now that was progress! What I just saw in there was a real bo-eep!" Hoskins was saying, crawling out of whatever woodwork he was hiding in, only to cut himself off with a yelp when Claire turned on him, stepping back as he did.

"I want whoever let that pig loose fired." she demanded, and that seemed to make Hoskins ego as a shifting Alpha override his sense of self-preservation, starting to argue back with her.

"Hey, you can't just do that-" He started, trying to intimidate her, only to get cut off with a furious shriek.

" _YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL HERE!_ " Claire took a deep breath, pinning Hoskins in place with a glare. "I want the paperwork filed by the time I check in with the control room tonight, or I'm getting rid of you and your _entire_ team and putting Owen and Barry in charge. Are we clear?" she stated, her voice quiet and coldly more intimidating than Hoskins could ever manage to be. There were times Owen forgot that Claire was as just as much an Alpha as himself and (more than) Hoskins, but moments like this made it blatantly clear. He watched Hoskins stammer out some nonsense and scurry off, and then Claire turned to him, still radiating fury. (He was proud of the fact that he didn't flinch, even if he did snap to attention in a way he hadn't since boot camp.)

"Before you start yelling at me, I would like to point out I saved your nephew." He told her, somewhat shamelessly redirecting her in the hopes that she wouldn't go off on him next, and it appeared to work, Claire taking several deep breaths and visibly calming herself before she spoke.

"...We have a new exhibit. Masrani would like you to inspect the paddock tomorrow morning for vulnerabilities. Thank you for saving my nephew. Now I am going to go take him to the infirmary to get checked out." Claire started, each word clipped in a way that made it clear she was still actively forcing herself to be calm. She practically shoved the two boys into her car (granted, carefully, with Zach, but still forceful), before accelerating off at a much high speed than what she drove there at. Owen let out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding, turning to Barry.

"The bet that's going on among the staff about if Claire's a shifter. What's the leading theory, again?" he asked, his mind racing.

"The main theory is Triceratops. She's known to be fond of them. Others think its one of the other herbivores, with a few think she just isn't a shifter at all." Barry replied, giving Owen a quizzical look at the unexpected question.

"No....the way she stood there? Has to be some sort of apex predator, bigger than Hoskins' wolf that he's so proud of, if she is." he replied, shaking his head. He sighed and started to walk. He wanted nothing more at that point than a shower and a nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why this chapter was so hard to get out. I had the whole thing planned in my head for days but just couldn't seem to write it. Sorry if it's rough.
> 
> This literally took me all day today and a good chunk of yesterday despite having the entire thing planned out.


	3. Bruises and Bitemarks

Zach was on his knees, a hand gripping his hair as a the person's dick hammered his throat. Everything else was...fuzzy. He wasn't sure where they were, or how he got there, or anything leading up to it.

"Hey. Eyes on me, Omega." He heard, and his eyes became almost magnetized to Owen's face, practically purring around the Alpha's cock, his hand wrapped around his own. "Good boy." Owen praised, fucking his mouth harder. He could feel the Alpha's muscles tightening, a sure sign that he was getting close even as Zach's own orgasm was swiftly approaching.

A loud knocking startled him awake, sending him flailing from the bed with an undignified squawk of alarm followed by a grunt of pain when he landed on the floor, sending pain lancing up his spine. "Zach, you awake? Aunt Claire's here for breakfast." Gray called through the door, and Zach focused.

"Uh, yea, you guys go ahead. I'm gonna shower and then meet you down there." He called back, glad his voice didn't give anything away. He only halfway paid attention to Gray's confirmation, standing up slowly and making his way to the shower, turning the heat on high. He hissed lightly when the hot water hit his back, leaning against the still-cool tiles, enjoying the contrast between them as he thought about the dream he had been startled out of.

Obviously it wasn't the first time he'd had a sex dream, but it was the first one with someone that much older than him, and that level of intensity. He shivered against the tiles, reaching down to start jacking off, closing his eyes and imagining himself with Owen. Places where the raptor handler might bite him, teeth sinking in to claim the Omega. The Alpha putting him on his knees or on all fours or bent over a table, chair, anything really, and fucking him hard. He even briefly imagined being collared and leashed and riding the man, subconsciously slipping to his knees in the shower, mimicking his position in the dream while mumbling Owen's name over and over as he came.

He spent a bit longer in the shower, catching his breath and actually bathing before he got out and got dressed to meet his brother and aunt for breakfast. He only half-paid attention to thier conversation once he arrived, distractedly responding when spoken to and avoiding letting his aunt see his phone and the numerous searches he was doing about consent laws, especially for Omegas, in both Americas.

He wasn't going to like. Actively pursue the guy, but....it was nice to be able to fantasize and if an actual opportunity arose he would definitely be interested in taking it, as long as it wouldn't result in major trouble. Besides, he doubted Owen would be interested in him anyway. Someone as cool as him probably had a mate already. 

"By the way, please don't ever tell your mother about what happened yesterday. Even though we were incredibly lucky and all you got was some bruising, Karen may genuinely murder me if she finds out you were that close to velociraptors." Aunt Claire said, looking directly at him, and he hurriedly put his phone away.

"Uh, yea, you got it. So, any plans for today or..?" He asked, changing the subject. Thankfully Claire didn't take notice of anything being off, as she simply nodded.

"Mr. Masrani wanted me to take Owen to inspect the paddock for a new asset, so I will be pretty busy today. Perhaps you and Gray can check out the gyrospheres?" Claire suggested, checking her own phone and frowning at whatever message she had been sent. "Ok, your mother just sent me a text freaking out about you leaving your emergency heat suppressants behind....and admittedly freaking out about several unrelated other things, but is that going to be a concern, Zach?" she added, pinching the bridge of her nose with a sigh before looking up and raising an eyebrow at Zach. Zach blushed and shook his head.

"That's not for like....two and a half weeks. Didn't think I would need them." he mumbled out. "Besides, you had the clinic test like, everything yesterday. I'm surprised you didn't have my entire medical history within five minutes." he continued, trying to deflect the attention back to Claire.

"I'll admit I may have reacted a bit...strongly.It's uh...not the first time I've seen someone I care about face to face with a velociraptor, and _you_ aren't the first member of this family to do so as well. I'm just glad that you got out of there with nothing more than some bruising from the fall. I'll have to figure out some way to thank Owen..." She told him, glancing to the side in thought before standing up. She spent a few more minutes making sure they would be okay on there own and had anything they might need for the day before walking off, phone pressed to her ear, back in full business mode efficiency.

Zach and Gray continued eating for a little bit longer before setting out, visiting a few different attractions in the park, including the mosasaurus feeding show where they got completely soaked, but it was at least pretty cool. And honestly, he had been getting pretty warm anyway so the cool water was refreshing. They walked around a bit more and got lunch so they could dry off, Zach playing with the replica raptor claw the whole time, before heading to towards the gyrosphere valley. There was a brief hiccup when Gray had a miniature breakdown on the train and revealed thier parents impending divorce (which he...didn't handle right. He'd had a bit of a headache and was weirdly moody at the time.) Zach felt kind of bad about that after, so when they were out in the valley and got the callback notice, he decided to press on, rolling through a broken gate in an attempt to cheer his little brother up by getting him a closer look at more dinosaurs.

He really should not have done that. Should have just listened and gone back. Instead they were attacked by some freakish dinosaur and running for thier lives straight off a cliff and into a river, instinctively grabbing Grace and keeping them both under the water as long as possible, the river sweeping them downstream. When they finally washed up on shore, they took a few moments to catch their breath, Gray discarding his waterlogged and now-useless watch right there. The two boys started walking, silent for a few minutes other than the soft squelching of their waterlogged shoes.

"So, you're the dinosaur expert. What the hell was that thing, Grace?" Zach asked, glancing over in time to see the kid shrug.

"It didn't look like anything I've ever heard of. The new asset Iguess....do you think Aunt Claire is ok?" Gray asked, and Zach couldn't do much more than frown and shrug in response. Part of him wanted to reassure his sibling, but at the same time he also didn't want to lie and give him false hope. Neither of them had any idea how that thing had escaped or what it could do or had already done. He looked forward, hoping to spot anything that could be of help.

"Hey, is that a building over there? We should see if there's anything in it we can use to call for help or get back to the main park or something." He suggested, pointing at what he had seen through the trees, ushering Gray along. He was starting to get overheated again, now that they had mostly dried off...man, he really was not prepared for how hot Isla Nublar would be. He wasn't sure how Gray seemed to be handling it so well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eh...I'll go ahead and end this chapter here. Need to get some sleep before work tonight. Or try to anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> writing fanfics is hard, especially if one is starting from a canon point. sorry if it comes across a bit stilted. my last attempt at a fanfic instead of original work was in high school lol


End file.
